DETROIT — Stephen Weiss’ nightmare of a first season with the Detroit Red Wings just got a little worse.

Weiss will be out indefinitely with a sore groin.

“(Tuesday) night was no good,” Weiss said. “It’s been a little bit sore, nothing crazy, but then it went south here pretty quickly. I’m concerned. Any time you’re not in practice and not able to skate, it’s not a good feeling. So I’m just going to see what the tests say.”

Weiss isn’t scheduled to have tests done until the Wings return home after their game Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

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It’s the third time this season a groin has sidelined him, the last came in mid-November and he missed six games. He also had an incident in the preseason.

“It’s a bad feeling,” Weiss said. “You want to be out there with the guys, feeling good and 100 percent. When you’re not, it takes a toll on you, especially when things are going the way they have.”

Weiss, who has just two goals and two assists in 26 games this season with Detroit, is mired in what he calls his worst slump of his career. He’s gone 20 straight games without a goal.

The longest goalless drought of his NHL career came at the start of the 2002-03 season when he went 21 straight games without a goal.

“It’s part of sports, sometimes these things happen and you don’t know why,” said Weiss, who signed a five-deal deal on the first day of free agency at $4.9 million a season. “You try to do whatever you can to prevent these things. Sometimes they just happen and you got to deal with it the best you can and fix it and come back stronger. Hopefully, the tests aren’t that bad and we can get back soon.”

Weiss said this is the first time he’s had an issue with a groin at this point of the season.

“I’ve had minor stuff, usually at the start of the season, kind of through training camp when it’s pretty high intense,” Weiss said. “I don’t know why it’s happening. I’m trying to do what I can to prevent it. It’s not really working, so maybe there is something going on in there.”

The injury also messes up the Wings’ line combinations since they’ll be down another center with Darren Helm (shoulder) and Henrik Zetterberg (herniated disc). Johan Franzen will have to move back to center.

“I just know it’s been affecting him and now here we are,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “Mule’s got to go back in the middle. We’ll figure out the lines tomorrow.”

Howard tweaks knee

Jonas Gustavsson was already scheduled to start Thursday against Tampa Bay, but now he’ll have a new backup after Jimmy Howard “tweaked his knee” in practice.

According to Wings general manager Ken Holland, Howard will have an MRI done Friday.

The Wings recalled Petr Mrazek from Grand Rapids.

Howard has struggled winning games this season, dropping to 6-8-7 this season after a 3-2 shootout loss to Florida on Tuesday. He has a 2.65 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.

Mrazek, who is 10-2-1 this season with the Griffins, made 14 saves in a 5-0 win at Edmonton in his lone appearance this season on Nov. 1.

In order to recall Mrazek, Zetterberg had to be placed on long-term injured reserve.

Zetterberg, who will miss his fifth straight game Thursday, must sit a minimum 10 games and 24 days. He’s eligible to return on Dec. 28 at Florida.

Send comments to chuck.pleiness@macombdaily.com and visit his blog at redwingsfront.wordpress.com.